A conversation with Kim Clijsters into the early hours of the morning set the wheels in motion for Chris Eubanks to reinvigorate his failing tennis career.
Eubanks met Clijsters at Indian Wells as part of the mixed gender World TeamTennis competition.
The pair played together and post-match spent hours talking, Eubanks soaking in every bit of information like a sponge that the four-time Grand Slam winner offered.
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“He’s such a good kid, his mind is so open to learn and absorb and ask everybody for their experience,” said Clijsters on Stan Sport’s Grand Slam Daily.
“We sat after one of the events that we played. We kind of had treatment in the same room and we just sat on the couches and just talked for like three or four hours.
“It was like one or two o’clock in the morning and he just kept firing questions at me and I shared my experiences from travelling on tour as a teenager to being in my 30s.
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“We’ve always kept in contact since and I’ve kind of watched him get better and better and go up in the rankings.”
This year, the little-known American was ranked outside the top 100. Prior to the 2023 season he’d never progressed past the second round at a major.
Hardly a fresh face in tennis terms at 27, Eubanks began looking to switch his attention to opportunities in broadcasting.
Grass courts were particularly hard for Eubanks and another sluggish start to his season had him down in the dumps.
Desperate for help, he leant on that relationship with Clijsters, sending her a series of messages asking for advice (pictured below).
Although she never won a singles Grand Slam on grass, Clijsters did win at Wimbledon in doubles alongside Japan’s Ai Sugiyama in 2003.
What has followed is a purple patch for Eubanks, who won the Mallorca Open in Spain and is set to make his first quarter-finals appearance in a Slam.
That’s come after beating Brazil’s Thiago Monteiro, 12th seed Cameron Norrie of the United Kingdom, Australia’s Christopher O’Connell, and fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas from Greece.
“He’s done really well so far in the tournament to beat Stefanos Tsitsipas in five sets is very, very impressive,” said Clijsters.
“It’s great to see him on a roll and enjoying it and I’ve gotten to know him pretty well. We played world team tennis together and had some really good moments.
“He was really struggling at the start of the grass court season,” she added.
“He reached out and was like ‘I don’t know what to do and I hate the surface’ and so we just started talking a little bit and we spoke on the phone for a second as well and kind of gave him advice.
“I’m very excited for him. He called me after he won his tournament last week and he asked me to come and sit in the box for his match against Medvedev.
“It’s just nice to support him.”
Clijsters downplayed how much she had helped Eubanks, but it’s evident she made a difference.
“Major THANK YOU to Kim Clijsters for keeping my spirits up at the start of this grass court season,” he wrote on Twitter.
“I really appreciate you.”
Eubanks will face the number three seed Daniil Medvedev of Russia on Wednesday.
In the other quarter-finals, Andrey Rublev will face Novak Djokovic, Jannik Sinner will take on Roman Safiullin, and Carlos Alcaraz will go head-to-head with Holger Rune.
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